Batgirl Vol 1 28
Steph: "We now return you to your regularly scheduled secret freaky ninja training" A new villain enters the scene. His name is Sensor, and he has the ability to read minds...which is a problem in a town where the heroes wear cowls to mask their secret identities. A top-secret super-powered black-ops organization has its eyes on Batgirl...and they're sending in their best to do the job. But is the job to recruit her or to take her out? Summary of Stephness: Stephanie walks in on Cassandra training and asks if Cass can train her. Cassandra says she's busy with her own training, but Stephanie pleads on, citing the fact she can't train with Batman anymore as he's "gone or something." Cassandra hesitates and tells Steph she wouldn't last, and Stephanie responds, "Try me." Cassandra easily dodges every strike Stephanie tries to land, and then effortlessly knocks Steph to the ground with a palm strike while sitting down herself. Stephanie, who has worked herself to the point of exhaustion and nausea, throws up all over the floor while clinging to Cass. She does, however, manage to stutter out, "Wow...so...same time...tomorrow?" to which Cass, pleasantly surprised Stephanie has not decided to give up, smiles and says, "Sure." We see a general training montage of the next few sessions, in which Cass continues to dodge everything Stephanie throws at her, and Stephanie throws up twice more. However, in the last session she manages to hold it in and Cass looks triumphant. We cut to Cassandra sitting and waiting, then perking up with a big smile when she hears Stephanie arrive. Stephanie, however, isn't in a good mood. Cassandra asks what the matter is, and Stephanie replies that nothing is. Once again she tries her hardest to hit Cass in training and fails, and after Cass dodges a particularly vicious looking kick, pauses and slumps down. She explains to Cassandra about her father being The Cluemaster and how she got depressed seeing a father's day sign on the way over. "You can't know what it's like...to look up to someone and then..." Cassandra replies, "Sorry." Stephanie asks Cass about her parents, to which Batgirl replies, "David Cain. Assassin." Stephanie bursts into laughter and Cass is initially offended, but Stephanie explains she finds it funny she was complaining to Cass about her father when Cassandra's is "the scariest killer on the planet". She says her dad used to lock her in the closet when she was bad, and asks what David Cain did, to which Cass replies, "Shot me." They both begin laughing and Steph says. "Man. I can't beat you at anything." Later, Cassandra has an encounter with Force 14 where she injures her ribs. The Sensor comes to rescue her and hypnotizes her into believing the injury came when her grappling line snapped. Cass leaves, and when Stephanie enters the training session in street clothes she's bandaging her ribs. After expressing concern and receiving Cass's reply of "It's...stupid. Just...watch the ribs, okay?" Stephanie tells Cass she wont be bothering her anymore because some things have happened with Tim and other things and she wont be around as much anymore. Cassandra reacts with surprise, but takes it with a smile that immediately drops after Stephanie leaves, and she looks down sadly. Reviews Other Formats/Collected In: Digital Comic Book Batgirl: Fists of Fury TPB Batgirl: Point Blank (Vol. 3) TPB